Who knew that hip hop dancing could be such serious business? An American hip-hop dance team – or crew as they’re called in dance circles – is so miffed that another dance crew allegedly stole part of their routine that they’re taking the fight to the rival team half a world away.

The apparent ripping off occurred when a Korean dance crew busted out a brief but complex choreographed dance move that is exactly the same as a move pioneered by the American dance crew I.Am.Me on the MTV show America’s Best Dance Crew (side note: the show is hosted by none other than A.C. Slater, a well-known expert on 80s-style dance numbers).

Ignoring A.C. Slater for a moment and comparing the two dance routines in the videos below shows that the totally awesome Voltron-esque move performed by both crews is one and the same. The Korean crew, known only as Team B, as they are currently competing on the Korean dance competition show WIN (for “Who is Next”), never gave any credit I.Am.Me for the move, nor did producers of the show.

I.Am.Me crew member Brandon Harrell took to the Internet’s home of passive-aggresive rants, Twitter, to stick it to Team B and the show’s producers:

“I don’t understand why these Big Asian (referring to series producer YG Entertainment) companies just don’t hire us to choreograph for their artist instead of still [sic] our stuff all the time!”

He followed up the initial Tweet with another dozen or so posts, generally being a good but slightly crazed sport about it, concluding:

“No matter how ‘ok’ people might think it is, it’s not cool to use others choreo without notifying and asking the creators….in ANY case.”

Obvoiusly YG Entertainment has no ground to stand on in this argument, although they did give I.Am.Me a passing thanks in the show’s credits. We believe the only civilized way to settle this dispute is for the two teams to come together for an epic Voltron dance battle.
[ Read in Japanese ]